Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scarth, Harry Mengden
SCARTH, HARRY MENGDEN (1814–1890), antiquary, born on 11 May 1814, was son of Thomas Freshfield Scarth of Keverstone in the parish of Staindrop, co. Durham, chief agent to successive dukes of Cleveland, and his wife Mary, born Milbank, of Gainford, near Darlington. After receiving his early education at the Edinburgh Academy, he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1837, proceeded M.A. in 1841, and was admitted ad eundem at Oxford on 1 Dec. 1842. He was ordained deacon in 1837 and priest in 1840, and for a short time held the curacy of Eaton Constantine, Shropshire, which he left on being presented by William Henry, first duke of Cleveland, to the rectory of Kenley in the same county. By the same patron he was presented in 1841 to the rectory of Bathwick in the borough of Bath, Somerset. In 1871 Harry George, fourth duke of Cleveland, presented him to the rectory of Wrington, Somerset, which he held until his death. He was appointed a prebendary of Wells on 25 March 1848, and was rural dean of Portishead from about 1880. He died at Tangier on 5 April 1890, and was buried at Wrington. By his wife, Elizabeth Sally (d. 1876), daughter of John Leveson Hamilton (d. 1825), rector of Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, whom he married on 15 Nov. 1842, he had seven children, of whom a son, Leveson Edward Scarth, and two unmarried daughters survived him. He was a moderate high churchman and a good parish priest. He was much esteemed in Bath, and a window was erected to his memory by public subscription in St. Mary's Church, Bathwick.
Scarth ranked among the best English authorities on Roman antiquities, and specially the relics of the Roman occupation of Britain, but was inclined to believe that the influence of the occupation was more permanent than is generally admitted by historians (Saturday Review, 15 Dec. 1883, lvi. 769). His principal publications are ‘Aquæ Solis, or Notices of Roman Bath,’ 4to, 1864, and ‘Roman Britain,’ 8vo n. d. [1883], in a series entitled ‘Early Britain’ (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge). From 1885 he was a constant contributor to the ‘Proceedings’ of the Society of Antiquaries, and one of his papers, on the ‘Camps on the River Avon at Clifton,’ is printed in ‘Archæologia,’ No. 44, p. 428. He also contributed to the journals of the Archæological Institute, the Archæological Association, and the Somerset Archæological and Natural History Society.
Alice Mary Elizabeth Scarth (1848–1889), the eldest daughter, published ‘The Story of the Old Catholic and other Kindred Movements,’ 8vo, 1883.
[Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. 1890, 2nd ser. xiii. 141; Proc. of Somerset Archæol. and Nat. Hist. Soc. 1890, xxxvi. 198–9; private information.]